Numerous medical fluids, both drugs and nutrient solutions, are administered to patients parenterally. The patient is generally fitted with a catheter inserted into a vein, connected in turn to a fluid supply tube. In order to adjust the treatment to the patient's status at any moment in time, it is necessary to be able to inject several fluids simultaneously or alternately. For this purpose, at the end opposite the catheter end, a line is equipped with a site for connecting several tubes, having a three-way valve or a valve manifold.
To avoid the risk of contaminating the patient, it is necessary to keep this site sterile.
For this purpose, protection by means of a housing made of synthetic material having two articulated half-shells each padded with foam designed to be soaked with an antiseptic agent is known. The walls of the housing have openings for tubes to pass therethrough and are equipped with elastic closing means.
In general, in a wall opposite that provided with the closing means, the housing has a slot for passage of a panel integral with the connection site serving to attach the latter to a fixed support disposed on a stand. At the present time this attachment is provided by a clamp which passes through a hole provided in one of the half-shells of the housing to grip the panel and renders this half-shell practically integral with the valve manifold of the connection site and impedes the opening movements of the other half-shell. As a result, with the present structure, it is difficult and sometimes even impossible to manipulate the valves. Moreover, they can injure personnel responsible for activating the valves, something which counteracts, the desired asepsis.